The NBA season is underway, and the daily fantasy sports world is excited. Daily fantasy basketball ranks behind football in popularity, but is definitely the sport everyone follows passionately. FanDuel has already launched big contests to start the season, and this will be the case until May. This is our first full NBA season, and we have already unleashed a lineup optimizer, minutes tool, and our interactive cheat sheets. Our analysts are in grind mode already, creating articles, podcasts, and cheat sheets that roll out each day. The NBA passion is alive with our crew, and you will feel it in our content.
Interactive NBA Cheat Sheets
We have been bringing interactive cheat sheets for each sport so far, and we have unveiled a new sport here this past week. The NBA FanDuel cheat sheets feature player tiers, a range of GPP/Cash picks, tips, and projections. Playing daily fantasy basketball requires a ton of time. You can argue fantasy basketball is the time occupying of the fantasy sports, and I would agree. Our analysts spend their time staying on top of rotation news, injury news, and researching every aspect of data for making lineups. We know how hard it is to put time in, so we are here to help keep you playing the game you love.
Player Tiers
Our player tier selection is an easy viewing tool to view all positions, and our player rankings for the fantasy slate. We have three tiers, where you will find each player with a tier 1, tier 2, or tier 3 ranking. Stephen Curry is your tier one style player, while Ricky Rubio ranks in the tier 2 area. For tier three players, you will usually find deep value plays, or injury replacements here. They are a critical part of constructing fantasy lineups. With injuries being such a crucial part of fantasy basketball, using the player tier chart is an easy way to swap somebody out. We will have enough picks for you to choose from, ranging from all salaries.
Advanced Stats, Projections, And Vegas Lines
Advanced stats, and Vegas info help us do our research for cheat sheets. If you are wondering how we go about researching players, this is your section. Researching Vegas lines is our first stop before diving into players. We look for possible blowouts, where starter minutes would be affected, as well as low/high team totals. There are a few teams to avoid picking on, like the Utah Jazz, who have a top three defensive efficiency, as well as a slow pace of play. This is reflected in the game total, making it an unattractive game to target. This helps narrow down our focus on which players are in play.
Next we dive into minutes, usage rate, defense vs. position, game logs, rebound differentials, and efficiency ratings. Russell Westbrook is a key example of a high usage player, with a 35.7% usage rate in the 2015-2016 season. Usage percentage is an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while he was on the floor. We are also looking for players with high floors/ceilings, and also the better points-per-dollar plays. These stats will be referenced next to the players in the sheets, to help you familiarize yourself with advanced stats.
The cheat sheets feature projections, vegas totals, and fantasy pointer per minute tables next to the players. This can give you a further idea of our logic behind the plays. Fantasy points per minutes is one of the better stats to use for fantasy basketball. With injuries, and rotations changing so many things on a nightly basis, this can help keep tabs on what to expect. Our quick tip icons are paired next to the players, which is gone into more detail below.
Quick Tip Icons
Our quick tip key has all you need to understand why the players are the players we picked. We also have a few tips that come as a warning, because some players are not as safe as others. The Warriors have blown out teams at home in the past, and choosing players there could be risky. Steph Curry could only see 28 minutes, instead of his usual 36. The blowout concern icon will show what players are involved in risky blowout games. Another icon to stay on alert for is the injury risk picture. NBA injuries can be tough to figure out, and sometimes we still want to take a risk on a player who is listed questionable, especially when flu season comes around. The emergency icon will show a player who is at risk for starting the game. If a player is out, a value player will sometimes step into a bigger role, with bigger usage. This is where the injury replacement icon comes into play.
The other icons focus on the matchup, with a +/- defensive rating against a certain position icon, and a heavy minutes, or heavy usage rate icon. These will be next to the top players of the night, and be referenced in the analysis. One of my favorite icons, is the peripheral producer icon. I love defense, so when a player can add on blocks, and steals, it adds upside to his game.
Come Cash With Us This Basketball Season
Our experts have grossed over $5 million in daily fantasy sports, and this is their full time job and passion. FanDuel has dropped monster prize pools already, and we look forward to getting you in on the action. Our analysis, cheat sheets, sortable tiers, and heavy research will help you stay successful in the grind that is the NBA season.